


Green

by Jen425



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017), Tokusatsu
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Developing Friendship, Female Tommy Oliver, Gen, Implied/Referenced Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Tommy Oliver isn’t the type of girl to lie to herself. It’s not useful and it’s even less productive.
Relationships: Tommy Oliver & Zack Taylor
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20
Collections: Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange 2019





	Green

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rivulet027](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/gifts).



> I never have and never will write the same Tommy 2.0 twice, but I like this particular one.

Tommy Oliver isn’t the type of girl to lie to herself. It’s not useful and it’s even less productive.

The things she’d done for Rita are… horrendous. Murder and torture and destruction in the name of power.

Of the  _ Zeo Crystal’s _ power.

It was only two days ago that she had stood before its  _ great _ power, the Rangers blocking her way to it. And yes, a part of her had been called to it far beyond Rita’s orders.

(A part of it  _ all  _ had felt far beyond right, beyond Rita’s orders, and what does that say about Tommy?)

But here she is, standing on the edge of a cliff and watching the sun set. A  _ “true” _ Power Ranger.

Alone.

“Hey, new girl!”

Tommy blinks, turning around in surprise. Zack walks towards her, eyes sparkling with an excitable smile.

“What are you doing up here all alone?” He asks, sitting down next to her. Tommy shrugs.

“I’m awake; I’m free of her control; I still killed people,” she says, bluntly. She’s not very good at mincing her words, much to her mom’s occasional displeasure. “Don’t feel like celebrating or going home.”

Zack hmms.

“Hope you don’t mind some company while you brood, then,” he says.

Tommy tries to defend herself. “It’s not—”

“You’re sitting on a cliff, watching the sunset and contemplating your own terribleness,” Zack says. “That’s brooding, Miss Oliver.”

“…That’s fair,” Tommy admits, sighing. She clenches her hand around a fairly heavy rock in her hand and pretends that she can’t hear it crack under the pressure of her clenched fingers. “I don’t expect any of you to trust me, anymore.”

Zack hmms, seeming in deep thought for just long enough to surprise her with his next words.

“Good,” he says. “Because we don’t trust you… But you’re still our friend.”

Tommy laughs, scooting back and pulling her hands to her chest.

“Maybe  _ yours _ ,” she snaps. “Maybe Billy’s. But Jason and the girls?”

Zack shrugs.

“Betrayal doesn’t hurt if it isn’t by someone you care about.”

“And none of them seem very forgiving,” Tommy points out. Zack laughs.

“Well, people change,” he says. “Didn’t you once say that you came here for a fresh start, anyways?”

That’s… true…

Tommy sighs.

“Thank you, Zack,” she says. “For forgiving me.”

Zack just shrugs.

“I like you,” he says. “Does it have to be more complicated than that?”

It really does. Tommy can’t quite bring herself to say as much.

“I’m a former supervillain,” she says instead. “You’re a superhero. You can decide if that’s too complicated.”

Zack laughs.

“Nope,” he says, popping the “p” dramatically.

Tommy can’t help but smile a bit back.

  
  
  


That doesn’t mean she forgives herself.

  
  
  


Two days later, Tommy goes to her first training session with the others, and Zack immediately partners up with her.

(“We’d probably all kill you if you hurt Billy,” Zack had whisper explained as they began sparring. “But I at least like you enough to hold back.”)

Tommy spends the next half hour or so kicking Zack’s ass as he attempts to keep up with her more brutal fighting style. Because, for all their struggles, none of the others have actually had reason to go all out in a fight with another human before she’d shown up.

Amazing what masks and alien faces can do.

And she’s definitely the one holding back, but not by much, and she’s almost smirking by the end of it…

Before she realizes that everyone is watching her smirk at being violent and is reminded again of what she’s done. Zack takes her now, limp hand and she helps him stand 92% on instinct.

“Time’s up,” Zack says, lightly. Tommy only nods, sighing.

Time’s up. She lost.

  
  
  


Over time, things do get better. But never… never with full trust from half her team. Not to mention that the part of Tommy that  _ had _ been as cruel and as jealous as Rita had emphasized in her is less than Please when the two girls she’s pining over end up dating, with an exasperated finally that they all echo.

Still, she comes to accept her role of “outsider” on her team.

Rita had split her powers from the others in the Morphing Grid, had corrupted and then supplemented her green armor with stolen gold that now lay beneath Tommy’s skin. She’s inherently othered.

The natural camaraderie she’d gained with her fellow Rangers before gaining her powers never comes back.

…well, mostly.

“You’re here early,” Zack notes, as she knocks three holoputties into each other until they shatter and is thankfully too focused to jump at his sudden presence - or perhaps just too used to it. She’s unarmored, of course. Unlike the others, she still doesn’t feel comforted by her suit’s protection, not to mention the ache that the others seem to be used to already. It’s purely physical armor, and the training won’t kill her.

With a smile, Tommy jumps up to sit along the railing of the training area, next to Zack.

“Billy needed help with something,” she says. “Wasn’t it you who said my presence limited the amount of minor earthquakes we get via Billy experiments?”

Zack merely shrugs, smirking at her.

“Perhaps,” he says. “I like that you’re smarter than you look. A little bit of everything.”

Tommy looks away.

“Must be the independent powers,” she says.

Zack hmms.

“Not really,” he says. “Just you.”

  
  
  


She already knows some of Zack’s home life, has even met his mom several times, and she’s definitely one of the best parents any of the Rangers have. Still, there’s no doubt in Tommy’s mind that her struggles weigh on Zack by no fault of her own.

She gets this confirmation when she finds herself hiding in the Command Center one night with an unexpected partner.

It’s not like they don’t do this. After a difficult battle or when Tommy or Trini’s moms are being shit or Jason’s dad is being almost as bad (lucky him - he’s starting to have things fixed) or Kim wants a place that even somewhat feels like home (and maybe it says a lot about their lives that they can consider this broken old space ship a home, but it has wifi, somehow, and somewhat less shitty parentals, so…) or Billy is working obsessively on an idea that needs something he can’t take to his house.

But Zack isn’t typically one who comes on his own, Tommy knows.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, leaning into the back of the giant couch which had somehow been bought and dragged in (Tommy more or less assumes it’s from Kim, but she doesn’t know and it isn’t exactly worth asking about). For once, Zack is the one who jumps.

“Hey, Greenie,” he says, with a smile that doesn’t meet his eyes. Tommy, unimpressed, stares right into them anyways. He sighs.

“Can you keep a secret from the others?” He asks.

“If you need me to,” Tommy offers. Zack smiles, slightly… and then it breaks.

“I had to take my mom to the hospital,” he says instead. “I don’t really think I can pay for it, and I’m worried, and…”

He trails off.

“And I’m really scared this time.”

Without hesitation, Tommy vaults over the couch and pulls Zack into a tight hug. The usually affectionate Black freezes for a good solid ten seconds before collapsing and starting to cry.

“I’m here for you,” Tommy says, because there’s nothing else to say.

But she is, and so will the others, if Zack wants to talk with them. But she’s… good at keeping secrets.

She’s fairly certain she’s the only one on her team that still has any from the others.

  
  
  


Tommy’s been a Ranger for four months before she realizes morphing isn’t painful for the others. It takes her two weeks after that to realize that it’s getting worse.

She doesn’t entirely know what to do with that.

“Is there any particular reason you’re avoiding everyone more than usual,” Zack says, almost making her jump and fall from her mountain perch. This one is farther away from the Command Center from her old one, which usually means less interruptions than that first day After.

“How do you  _ do _ that?” She asks, but not otherwise stopping him from sitting down next to her. Zack smirks.

“I’m a Black,  _ obviously. _ ”

And Tommy smiles back mostly because it reminds her of going through Ranger history with Zack because no one else could pretend to keep up with her. Nothing has ever made her feel  _ right _ like being a Ranger, even though it hurts, and she can name her past thirty predecessors, the achievements and pitfalls of each of the past twenty teams. Zords and weaponry and powerset changes.

Nowhere has morphing ever been recorded to injure the chosen user of a Morpher, though.

“Hey, seriously,” Zack says, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You know you can talk to me, right?”

Tommy just smiles and lets out a slight laugh.

“I know,” she says. “But this is something I need to tell everyone… and I’m not ready.”

  
  
  


She’s fairly certain he figures it out from how often he follows her, though, as the problem goes from pain to taking different routes back to the Command Center to hide when her morph just utterly fails.

She begins to look into the problem, questioning Alpha and Zordon and prodding Billy. She loves learning about the source and history of the Power Rangers and their powers and and the Morphing Grid itself, so no one really questions it.

And then Zedd shows up, with his ability to disrupt their Morphers if he touches them, whether they’re morphed or civilian. About ten times worse for her, though she tries not to think about it.

And Zack  _ definitely  _ catches her sneaking away this time. Literally.

“Careful,” he says, helping her stand. “We wouldn’t want you to be alone in this big forest. All helpless and pretty good.”

Tommy growls and smacks him lightly. Zack smirks back at her, unflinchingly.

“Gonna tell me what’s going on?” He asks. “None of the others seem any more hurt than me.”

Tommy doesn’t deign him with a response. Instead she just pulls his arm from her an growls “I’m perfectly fine, Zack.”

Zack doesn’t react to the lie, just nods in acceptance.

“I guess so,” he replies.

  
  
  


That’s the last time they speak alone for a long time.

  
  
  


Tommy comes to a realization while collapsed on the ground. Jason and Trini are near-death. Billy and Kim are still fighting, and Zack is slowly helping her stand.

Her Power Coin was destroyed by Zedd.

She has all the strength of an unmorphed morpher but  _ no connection to the Morphing Grid _ .

She can fight him, and, though it might cost her her life, she thinks she can beat him.

So she finally stands, and she heads back towards the fight.

Zack grabs her shoulder.

“Hey,” he says. “You’re not the Crazy Girl here.”

Tommy looks back at him, worry clear even through his visor.

“I’m not a Ranger,” she says. “He can’t fight back against me.”

“So you’ll face him alone?” Zack asks, letting his visor retreat so that she has to meet his gaze. Tommy sighs, but doesn’t look away.

“No one else can,” she says. “Unless one of you gives up your Power Coin mid-battle, which is a terrible pla—”

Zack is already unmorphed, placing his Power Coin on the ground.

“Find someone who will fit,” he says. “I release the Power.”

An explosion comes from behind them as Tommy watches Kim and Billy fall back. She looks from Zack to Zedd.

This is a suicide run, and she knows it, but she doesn’t want him to die.

“Let’s go,” she says, simply.

And they do.

**Author's Note:**

> So that got… dark…
> 
> Don’t worry, though! Everyone lives.


End file.
